Creative works and thoughts of Richard Burke

Tag Archives: Pelicans

This time of year I like to revisit old images and sometimes edit them with newer tools.We had spent the morning at John’s Pass Village near Madeira Beach Florida shooting Pelicans. It was a beautiful day but we were not there at the optimal time and the colors were washed out from the late morning sun. Hence I never edited or published any of the images.

Earlier this week I edited another image taken on this day and converted the image to monochrome creating a pelican portrait. I thought I might be able to save this washed out image by converting it to HDR. HDR brought out the whitecap reflections and made the image interesting and worth sharing.

This time of year I like to revisit old images and sometimes edit them with newer tools.We had spent the morning at John’s Pass Village near Madeira Beach Florida shooting Pelican’s. It was a beautiful day but we were not there at the optimal time and the colors were washed out from the late morning sun. Hence I never edited or published any of the images.

In revisiting the images I wondered what if they were black and white and I just let the sky go white. It would almost be like having a flying pelican in the studio. I used the NIK Silver tool to recreate the image and I like the new version. This is why I believe that no matter how much shooting I do it pays to revisit old images.

This time of year I like to revisit old images and sometimes edit them with newer tools. This was taken off Captiva Island in Florida a number of years ago. I love brown pelicans and when I saw fisherman trying to hit them with shovels or poles,I got upset. My brother in law explained that fisherman hate them because they hang around the boats and try to steal the fisherman’s catch.

I reedited this using the NIK HDR tools and adjusted the color andcontrast to make it appear more like a paining.

When we first moved to the Pocono Mountains we would see all the deer and get real excited. Aren’t they pretty? Isn’t nature wonderful?
Our real estate agent laughed and told us that within five years we would think of them as pests. He was wrong, It only took three years. We saw the impacts of deer wasting disease and eventually our community had to vote for a deer cull. There was no hunting in our community and the deer population was unhealthy.

For the last three years we have been wintering in Florida and I love to watch birds in flight, especially large birds like pelicans. People who live there hate them, especially fisherman. They steal bait, steal the catch, poop all over their boats and stalk them well out to sea. Here is a small group pestering a fisherman in a bay near Captiva island Florida.

I think we all have a fascination with flight. We dream about it. We study birds, build aircrafts and ride rollercoasters and other rides just to experience the sensation of flight. Wealthy people spend a lot of money to go up into space to experience free fall and hell people even jump out of plane to skydive and jump off of cliffs to experience the sensation of flight.

Looking through my images I realize as a photographer I have long been fascinated with the concept of flight. Here are a few of my favorite images on the subject.

Watching Pelicans fly is like watching fish in a tank for me. It makes me happy and lowers my blood pressure. When they skim over the surface looking for fish it reminds me of a scene in Doctor Strangelove. George C. Scott is describing how low “his boys” can fly a B-52 under the radar.
This one fishing off the fishing dock at Johns Pass in Madeira Beach Florida.